The present invention relates to computer systems, and more particularly to interfaces between computers and data storage devices.
In computer systems, computers store and/or retrieve data to/from data storage devices, such as hard disk drives, CD or DVD drives, zip drives, and other high/low-capacity storage devices, through various types of interfaces which can have different physical and/or logical operational requirements. One such interface which has become more common in computer systems is the integrated drive electronics (IDE) interface. The IDE interface is also commonly referred to as an advanced technology attachment (ATA) interface.
One type of ATA interface, known as a parallel-ATA interface, transmits data in parallel and has a maximum data transfer speed of 133 MB/s. Another ATA interface is the serial-ATA interface which can support a greater maximum data transfer speed of 150 MB/s.
Generally, a main logic board in a computer includes connectors and controllers that may support the parallel-ATA and serial-ATA interfaces so as to provide flexibility to a user who can interface the computer to parallel-ATA and/or serial-ATA data storage devices. When a user connects storage devices to the parallel-ATA interface and/or to the serial-ATA interface, it may be necessary for a user to define, via a setup menu, certain storage device information in a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) RAM which is used during booting operations of the storage devices. Unfortunately, some users may not be sufficiently familiar with the computer to be able to correctly use the setup menu to define storage device information in the CMOS RAM which may be needed to allow normal booting operation of the storage devices.